Your operation

To get at your kidney the surgeon has to make a cut across your tummy. This is in an area where scars heal well. He or she will then expose your kidney, its renal artery, which brings blood into it and its renal vein, which drains blood out of it. Both are divided and the ureter, which is the muscular tube that carries urine from your kidney to your bladder, is exposed and divided as well. Your kidney is now free to be lifted gently from your body and stored in cold preservative until it is ready to be transplanted into your loved one. The cut is stitched and a dressing is placed over the scar.

To know more about your loved one’s operation go to About the operation.